Prosecutor: ‘That man right there’… decided to kill

Jason Michael Balcom, who has been convicted of raping and killing Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was 22 and pregnant, during a sexual assault, burglary and robbery nearly 24 years ago, sat with his attorneys and listened to the prosecution's closing argument Wednesday morning in superior court in Santa Ana, during the penalty phase of the his trial.MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA On the day she died nearly a quarter of a century ago, Malinda Gibbons was on top of the world, in love with her husband and about to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, an Orange County prosecutor told a jury here Wednesday.

But all of that came crashing down July 18, 1988, when the 22-year-old, pregnant housewife was punched in the face, tied up, gagged and sexually assaulted by Jason Michael Balcom, an 18-year-old Costa Mesa man who had just been released from juvenile hall, Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy argued during the penalty phase of Balcom's trial.

Murphy then pointed at Balcom, who was sitting in a gry suit a few feet away, and said after "that man right there got everything he came for, he decided to get a knife... (and) decides to kill her."

The prosecutor said the last image Gibbons saw before she died was Balcom coming toward her with the knife, and among the last things she felt was the knife plunging into her chest. "She felt herself getting weaker ... the oncoming blackness of death," Murphy said.

He insisted that the aggravating circumstances of the way Gibbons was murdered, the despair her family felt after leaning of her death and evidence of three other violent sexual assaults committed by Balcom during a three-month crime spree in the summer of 1988 warrant the death penalty.

Deputy Public Defender Doloris Yost, in her final argument, begged the jury for mercy and compassion and asked for a verdict of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

She argued that the mitigating circumstances of Balcom's childhood, where he was raised by a dysfunctional single mother who subjected him to physical and emotional abuse and who years later committed suicide by laying on a railroad track, deserved life without parole rather than a death sentence.

Laura Balcom, Yost said, was a difficult, self-absorbed and argumentative woman who had a series of affairs with black men to rebel against her bigoted white parents in Michigan. As a result, Yost said, her son was rejected by his maternal grandparents because he was half black, and he barely knew his father, who did not play a role in raising him and who died in prison.

The defense attorney told the jury that Balcom never had a father figure in his life, and that one of his mother's boyfriends molested him and another was a drug dealer who also died in prison.

She also contended that Balcom did not plan to murder Gibbons when he gained entrance to her Costa Mesa apartment, and that he was barely 18 years old when he embarked on his crime spree in 1988. He was, she said, "a child who was neglected and abused."

The two attorneys finished their penalty phase arguments late Wednesday. The jury in Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno's courtroom will begin deliberations Thursday. The only decision will be to recommend his punishment: a death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The same jury convicted Balcom last week of first-degree murder for stabbing Gibbons to death in her Costa Mesa apartment. Her semi-nude body was found by her husband when he returned home from work July 18, 1988. The jury also found that Balcom committed the murder during a sexual assault, a robbery and a burglary, special circumstances that qualified him for the penalty phase.

Balcom was living in a Costa Mesa motel less than a mile from the Gibbons' apartment complex in 1988 and was a suspect after he was arrested in a separate rape that occurred a week later. But there was insufficient evidence to charge him with murder in 1988 and the investigation went cold.

He was charged with Gibbons' murder in 2004 when a national database matched his DNA with genetic material recovered from the crime scene. His trial has been delayed many times since then.

This is the first death penalty trial in Orange County in 2012. If death is imposed, Balcom will become the 59th killer from Orange County on death row, and one of more than 700 facing execution statewide. No one has been executed since 2006.

Jason Michael Balcom, who has been convicted of raping and killing Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was 22 and pregnant, during a sexual assault, burglary and robbery nearly 24 years ago, sat with his attorneys and listened to the prosecution's closing argument Wednesday morning in superior court in Santa Ana, during the penalty phase of the his trial. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Matt Murphy, deputy district attorney, presented his closing argument to the jury Wednesday morning in superior court in Santa Ana, during the penalty phase of the trial of Jason Michael Balcom, who has been convicted of raping and killing Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was 22 and pregnant, during a sexual assault, burglary and robbery nearly 24 years ago. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Using his hands as he spoke, Matt Murphy, deputy district attorney, presented his closing argument to the jury Wednesday morning in superior court in Santa Ana, during the penalty phase of the trial of Jason Michael Balcom, who has been convicted of raping and killing Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was 22 and pregnant, during a sexual assault, burglary and robbery nearly 24 years ago. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jason Michael Balcom, who has been convicted of raping and killing Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was 22 and pregnant, during a sexual assault, burglary and robbery nearly 24 years ago, sat with his attorneys and listened to the prosecution's closing argument Wednesday morning in superior court in Santa Ana, during the penalty phase of the his trial. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Matt Murphy, deputy district attorney, presented his closing argument to the jury Wednesday morning in superior court in Santa Ana, during the penalty phase of the trial of Jason Michael Balcom, who has been convicted of raping and killing Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was 22 and pregnant, during a sexual assault, burglary and robbery nearly 24 years ago. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jason Michael Balcom, who has been convicted of raping and killing Malinda Godfrey Gibbons, who was 22 and pregnant, during a sexual assault, burglary and robbery nearly 24 years ago, listened to closing arguments Wednesday morning in superior court in Santa Ana, during the penalty phase of the his trial. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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